Madame Bovary

Rating:
Summary: Modern life: worth living?
Review: Ultimately, Emma Bovary says no to her provincial life with all its mediocrity, hypocrisy, and crushing boredom. She is the ultimate Romantic trapped in a highly unromantic marriage. This is the mother of all "bored housewife turns to adultery" tales. It is also the perfect French novel of the 19th century.

Madame Bovary is Flaubert's answer to that century, dominated as it is by the hateful, sub-human bourgeois. The colorful heroes of previous aristocratic ages are gone, and men like Charles Bovary and the apothecary M. Homais have stepped into the vacuum. These are men who cannot remotely begin to satisfy Emma's longings. So she goes looking for others, with flashes of delirious erotic hope that ultimately lead only to darkness. One of her lovers seduces her at an agricultural fair; his whispered words are accompanied by a chorus of pigs grunting. This is just one of the many wonderfully detailed signs that all point to doom. There is no hope for this poor naive soul, who only lacked romance or a little understanding to save her from her horrid fate.

This book, read properly, will turn all sensitive souls into Madame Bovary. But we are saved by the understanding she lacked. Flaubert with his artistry memorializes this poor woman in such a way that we don't necessarily have to share in her destruction. Emma's soul withered and died because she saw only Bovarys and Homais. Ours are strengthened because we see Flaubert.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy versus Reality
Review: The language of Madame Bovary lingers on the tongue long after the final page has been read. It is true poetry. Madame Bovary is an entertaining book mixed with adultery, secrecy and arsenic. The two main characters, Emma and Charles, are true opposites. Charles represents a mind based solely in reality, lacking imagination. He is a dimwitted country doctor who remains happy as long as he makes everyone else happy. He has no desire for riches and merriment. His wife, though-- Emmma Bovary-- contradicts him. She embodies a romantic, head-in-the-clouds soul. As the book carries on, her soul flickers like a flame, and every time she catches a glimpse of finery, that flame conflagrates; every time she attends a dance or visits Paris, that flame builds inside her-- hungry, wanting more. She reads romance novels and believes that is how life really should be. When she commits adultery, it is not about the adultery to Emma. It is about the fantasy she believes she is fulfilling. But, to Emma, it seems that no matter what she does, she cannot feel fulfilled. That flame just rises and rises in her and she cannot control it with any amount of trinkets and satin curtains. She is tragic because she is destined to be unhappy; her dreams are too high out of reach. Her only option is to be engulfed in a flame she cannot squelch. In the meantime, Charles is increasingly upset by her as well. After all, he only wants to make others happy, and his dearly-loved wife is not happy. This book truly represents two worlds at odds: reality versus fantasy. It is fascinating and I would truly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: buy the book...but buy a different edition
Review: My comments tend towards what some might deem the pedantic. While I will not use this review to discuss Flaubert's work, I do believe that he has been done a great disservice. I bought this edition for its critical apparatus and Flaubert's correspondence included at the end of the novel, but now I wish I hadn't. This particular edition is wrought with more typographical errors than I have ever seen in a book from a professional press. I found this to be distracting, to say the least, and caught myself looking for the next mistake rather than paying attention to the work itself. I wonder if Bantam supposes that this book is purchased only by students (it is the cheapest edition afterall) who leave it on the shelf as they read the Cliff's notes in order to squeak by on the weekly quiz. There is a ratio of at least one mistake per 25 pages (sometimes even two mistakes appear on the same page!).

Here are just a couple examples of the more greivous mistakes: p. 8 - "Where should he go to prctice his new profession?" p. 187 - "...[she] even began going to chuch less frequently..."

I realize that I tend to be more exacting than most, but I should think this to be a barrier for anyone. My suggestion - buy a different edition.

Rating:
Summary: The Prodigal wife
Review: Emma Bovary, the most audacious adulterer in all literature, has lot of company, Anna Karanina, Lady Chatterley to name few. But as we at times feel sympathy for the other famous protagonists, there is a strong dislike at times revulsion for Madame Bovary for her outlandish behavior at the expense of not only her cowardly husband but also her lonely, helpless daughter. She would sacrifice anything, anybody to have her way. Consequences be damn. When somebody asked Flaubert who was the model for his famous heroine he replied "That Bovary woman is myself!"

Madam Bovary is bored with her boorish, uncouth husband and longs for romance, gaiety , excitement, music, dance, theater, everything a intellectual Parisian woman would have. She wanted to be a bourgeois! She falls headlong into disaster. She would not even destroy the love letters which were stashed away in the attic. Emma despised her husband to such a degree that she shuddered to think of his forgiveness which she knew she would sure to get after he found out of her infidelity.

She is no doubt one of the most fascinating characters even penned. One can just imagine the reverberations the book must have caused in Victorian England in mid 19th century not to mention America.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Translation, A Great Novel but...
Review: There is no doubt that Madam Bovary is a great and influential novel. As a native French-speaker, I can also say this is a terrific translation. But the character of Emma Bovary is so crass, so cold, so unlovable that I can't help but get a sour taste in my mouth every time I read the book--in French or in English.

Had Flaubert endowed the selfish Emma with a little love for others (her husband and her daughter, most notably), I would have felt sympathy for her and for her plight. I realize that Emma was no doubt a woman who was "trapped" but even trapped women find the time to love their own child. As it is, Emma Bovary is a self-centered, conniving fool and I pity anyone who comes near her.

All that aside, Flaubert certainly did create a wonderfully-written book, an engrossing plot, an innovative piece of work and one filled with style (whether he wanted to do so or not). So why only three stars? I deducted two stars because of Emma's lack of humanity. I simply wanted to slap the woman and say, "Grow up!"

Rating:
Summary: Most Overrated Classic Ever (including "Vanity Fair")
Review: I am not writing this for those who, by their nature, love everything classic. If you start reading "Madame Bovary" and, for whatever reason, like it after one hundred pages, then great. I am writing this for all those who get one hundred pages into it and wonder what the big deal is. There is no big deal, and you should quit at this point and not waste any more of your time. The entire book is just as boring as the first one hundred pages. There is nothing-- NOTHING-- worth continuing for: flat stiff characters, no real plot, and stuffy stupid language.

Rating:
Summary: Portrait of a sociopath
Review: With the emotional maturity of a fourteen or fifteen year old girl or possibly just the sociopathic tendencies, Emma (Madame Bovary) is at the same time fascinating and detestable. She is remarkably similar to many stories of ex wives I have heard over the years and, if living in this century would certainly have had a string of husbands, using and abusing each one while they loved her. This story does not have the repentant air of Moll Flanders (Defoe) and I would not recommend it to a young girl. That being said, it is not the 'dirty' book I expected.

Emma is the kind of person who idealizes what she does not have, expects love to come with thunderbolts and poetry and to stay that way for all time. From her education at the convent to her life on her father's farm, to her marriage to Charles Bovary and through two prolonged affairs with other men, reality can never live up to Emma's expectations of what it should be like. Once the novelty wears off, she thinks there is something wrong with where she is or who she is with. In her mind, she feels that she deserves this imagined ideal and directs her hatred on whomever she feels is standing between her and the experience of the ideal. This, unfortunately, is most often her loving husband, Charles (although her parents, lovers and money lenders are not immune from her contempt either). Charles continually gets a bad rap from reviewers for being stupid and cowardly. I found him to be neither extreme. Not a dullard, he is naïve and trusting. He is very much a middle of the road man in my eyes - not the cream of the crop but not the dregs either. Just your average everyday man making a living and supporting a wife who he thinks the absolute world of.

There is a strong possibility that this is a fictionalized account of a real woman and this is an important point for me. If simply fictional, it is so realistic it is depressing. There is no author's invention to make the reader feel better about what has happened.

Rating:
Summary: A woman of your dreams?
Review: Emma Bovary is quite the interesting figure, which is a large part of why I sincerely adore this novel, Emma Bovary, in a sense, is more perfect, more of what woman--at least ordinary woman does, Emma portrays not a mature and honorable courtesan, but a giggling 'wanna be.

Then, Charles Bovary comes in the picture( actually, he comes in first ). Charles is a child with intellects beyond even his own friends, but unfortunately for him and fortunately for the reader, he doesn't know how to treat a lady, well, at least how to make a lady happy. That will be a main problem afterwards, for Emma is actually Charles' second wife.

Now the characteristics of the two main character are described for the new reader( I've always wondered how that old fashioned technique of mixing two characters of different characteristics still work right now ). The story is one of those rare treasures of literature were the story is still breath--taking even though the dialogues are few--well, admit it, we all love a story with a lot of dialogues. Though without that much adventures, the different feelings of the characters, such as Charles sincere ignorance of what's happening right under his nose, or Emma's rather pretentious and much more inexperienced unsatisfiable want of the perfect man can really make the reader curious, and then it comes in for the kill, grabbing the reader showing the different could--be suiters as if showing a young shopper wonderful--looking and expensive materials. And with such materials ready, the only problem left is to weave it.
But, as Gustave Flaubert's expert mind proves, that is not a problem at all, the wife of Charles dying, him meeting beautiful Emma, their marriage, both people's inexperienced ways and their pity--making politeness as Emma searches for the perfect man, and had just about enough of Charles, and was about to move on with the new guy,...the sad and shocking/shockingly fast conclusion.

And like every novel, the weaving is not perfect. Here stated are some of the faults that I find in this novel. Why did Emma not try to do something, well, less straightforward about her obviously difficult situation? I mean, she could of just given Charles subtle suggestions about her wants, and slowly let Charles get accostumed to it, and then let Gustave Flaubert have that not work, and then she goes to Plan B. That would make more sense, and the novel would be just as good, if not better. And why didn't a woman like Charle's first wife see the danger beforehand of Charles meeting with a beautiful young girl like Emma? If Gustave Flaubert had also made her try to stop Charles from leaving her alone more...well, you know, then it'll be even more the romance novel of the time then it was!!
Well, anyways, no matter if you think the novel was poorly written, wonderfully woven, or neutral, Gustave Flaubert, teacher of Guy de Maupassant, friend of Turgenev, and a thoroughly accomplished writer of many novels himself, had brought the simple country girl, Emma, to the legendary Emma Bovary, one of literature's most popular, influential, and worthy woman, alongside Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Miss Majoribanks,etc. Three cheers for Emma! Three cheers for Gustave Flaubert! And three cheers For literature! Hooray!!!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: A beautiful, brilliant book with one large flaw: it was too easy for Emma to cheat on Charles. Charles is a good-hearted, well-meaning but stupifyingly boring person. The book would have been better (and more believable) if the choice to cheat on him would have been more difficult. I love Flaubert, but Charles Bovary is possibly the most uninteresting person in all of literature.

Rating:
Summary: There is a reason this is regarded a classic
Review: There is a reason this is a classic - it is a very well written (or translated in the case of the version I read) story about convincing characters and universal themes.

Emma Bovary, the wife of a provincial doctor who is devoted to her, turns to extra-marital affairs in an attempt to escape the suffocating boredom of her middle-class existence. Flaubert skilfully explores the motives behind these relationships for both partners concerned, refusing to paint Emma as an innocent romantic or a harlot, but rather attempts to place her in a shifting grey area in the middle.

Par to Flaubert's skill is the fact the story doesn't feel determined - Emma could have lived and thrived and it would have been just a believable as her suicide. The author also has a wonderful touch in describing settings and supporting characters - the local apocathary, striving and unfairly thriving - is just one of the many interesting supporting characters. This book has stood the test of time, and can be read not just in the context of the period it was written in or as another book to be ticked off on the list of French Classics to be read before you die - this is a book that can be enjoyed simply because it is a good story that is well told.